70% of hospital generators in Gaza out of service: Health Ministry

About 70% of electricity generators at hospitals in the Gaza Strip have gone out of service due to shortages of fuel, oil, and spare parts amid the ongoing Israeli blockade, the Health Ministry said Wednesday, Anadolu reports.

Zaher Al-Wahidi, director of the ministry’s Health Information Center, said during a press conference at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City that shortages of fuel and oil threatened to bring critical and life-saving hospital departments to a halt at any moment.

Wahidi rejected Israeli claims that it was facilitating the entry of medical aid and logistical supplies into the Gaza Strip, emphasizing that they are attempts to “improve the image” of the situation and conceal a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” in the enclave.

He said the supplies allowed into Gaza “represent only a very small amount” and do not meet even the minimum operational needs of health facilities, leaving them “struggling between life and death.”

“The health system in the Gaza Strip is being driven toward a systematic and mass execution, going beyond a humanitarian catastrophe to a fully fledged health genocide,” he said.

READ: Gaza hospital generators stop operating amid shortages of fuel, oil: Health Ministry

Wahidi said the fuel crisis also led public transport companies and buses to announce a complete or near-total halt in operations Wednesday, preventing hundreds of medical workers from reaching their workplaces and further isolating health facilities and hampering their ability to respond to emergencies.

“Health facilities have turned into isolated structures slowly dying amid the continued comprehensive blockade and the prevention of essential necessities of life from entering,” he said.

He said the situation coincides with an “unprecedented shortage” of medicines and medical supplies, the disruption of diagnostic equipment and the closure of treatment routes abroad for patients and wounded people on waiting lists.

Wahidi urged the international community, the UN Security Council, the World Health Organization, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to take “immediate and urgent action” to allow the entry of essential medical and operational supplies.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza on Oct. 8, 2023, nearly 74,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 174,000 injured, while around 90% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been destroyed.

READ: 5 children among 20 Palestinians killed as war-damaged building collapses in Gaza City